After 52 Years

After 52 years I visited my old college buddy who now resides in Kota Bahru, the capital of the state of Kelantan on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This was not the best time to visit as it was December, the monsoon season when rains would deluge the east coast states and cause widespread flooding. I decided to chance it so I hopped onto the plane for a short visit.

This was my first visit to the east coast. As the plane was landing I saw how flat the whole area was.  It was very pretty, with the rivers and green patches.

My friend was there waiting for me and it was good to see her again after 52 years.  We were in our teens when we first met in college in the UK and we lived in the same house and hitched hiked together throughout the British Isles.

She whisked me off to her house which was situated in the middle of a small secluded village with narrow winding lanes. She had a huge garden with two other houses apart from the main one in which they lived.

 Interesting varieties of plants and trees populated her compound which ran right down to the river bank.

                       The Buah Katak tree. Its fruits grow from the trunk and branches.

                             The Neem tree whose leaves have medicinal properties.

It was very cooling to sit on the river bank watching the river flow past.

At night we went up to the balcony on the roof of the guest house for drinks and to view the large golden moon.

  Her house is in such an idyllic spot, very tranquil and relaxing. It was a great change from the maddening traffic jams and noise of the city. We had good weather throughout my stay. All too soon I had to return home and as I waited for the plane to take off, the rain clouds were looming dark and it had begun to drizzle.

Christmas Season Is Here

Christmas season is being celebrated in Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, one of the states in Malaysia. Many people in Sabah are Christians and we usually have a Christmas program organised by the Council of Churches. This year it fell to the Methodist church to organise the festivities.

At the beginning of Gaya Street, the main street in the city, there were Christmas trees decked out with lights and pretty ornaments.  Many people flocked to this street in the evening to check out the activities and to take photographs.  We were no exception and braved the traffic jam to get there. It was worth the hassle of sitting in the jam and inching our way forward.

 

There was also a nativity shed with a display of Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus in the manger.

Next to this was a pen with two live goats.

There was also a stage where the choirs from different churches sang on different evenings and there were also dance performances. People of all ethnic origins and visiting tourists thronged the area to enjoy these events.

Many stalls lining the street enjoyed brisk business as crowds thronged the area, enjoying the festive mood.

This is an annual event held over four days just before Christmas so that folks can come out to share the joy and message of peace and goodwill.

The North Borneo Railway Steam Train

This morning my grandchildren and I boarded the North Borneo Railway steam train from the Tg Aru train station in Kota Kinabalu to Papar, a town 38.5 kilometers away.

When they were toddlers, aged 3 and 4, we would follow, in my car, the train from Tg Aru station up to Putatan every Saturday because they loved watching the train puffing its cloud of steam and its whistle as it neared level crossings.

Now that they are in their early teens, I thought it would be great if we all take the train to Papar. 

 Along the way they would be able to see the small towns en route as well as rural scenes.
Indeed, they got to see mangrove swamps,

padi ( rice ) fields, two Buddhist temples

and best of all, how the steam engine turned around on the turntable so that it could pull the carriages back on its return journey to Kota Kinabalu.

 Continental breakfast was served on board just as the train chuffed out of the Tg Aru station.  Our cabin attendants were very friendly and cheerful. We had a small basket of croissants and Danish pastries served with honey, jam and butter and the local black coffee was very aromatic.

Lunch ( local food ) was served in tiffin carriers just before we left Papar en route back to Kota Kinabalu.  This was a quaint touch.

  It reminded me of the days during the fifties when tiffin carriers were commonly used to hold food and transported to customers either in their work place or homes. We also used tiffin carriers to buy cooked food from shops, either for lunch or dinner.  We never used plastic or Styrofoam in those days.  If we didn’t use a tiffin carrier, the food, if it were fried, then it would be placed on a banana leaf and wrapped up in paper.

What was inside our tiffin carriers?

 Mixed local fresh fruit

Nasi briyani, mixed vegetables and 2 gravy covered satay sticks and a piece of fried mackeral. The children had a chicken drumstick each.

Except for the hot weather and intense noonday heat, the outing was an enjoyable one, a good experience for my grandchildren.

Super Dare Devils

One of the nicest shows that we have seen was in Guilin. It was mainly an acrobatic show with some dances.  However there was a presentation that demanded a lot of skill and courage. This presentation opened with a dramatic bang of thunder and lightning. The light effects were astounding.

 Then the smoke screen cleared to reveal a huge wire globe with a ramp leading to its door.

 As we were wondering what surprise was in store, a large motorbike roared on stage and two men quickly opened the door and he shot into the globe.  The door closed behind him and he began to circle inside the globe going faster and faster.

 A couple of minutes later another rider roared on stage and zipped into the globe.  I was on tenterhooks. How do they keep their distance?  The globe wasn’t that big and there were two riders inside zooming round and round.

 As I was wondering, two more riders came on and rushed into the globe soon followed by another. Now there were five riders inside!!  At first they were chasing one another. Then they were criss-crossing each other, from the side and from the top and bottom.

It was a nail-biting experience, watching them speeding inside, going round and round, up and down, side to side. After a short while, they came out of the globe and took their bows.

 These were really dare-devils, risking their lives and limbs each day in this small spherical space.

What astonished me was one of them was a woman!! Who says a woman can’t do what a man can??
She’s truly courageous and very daring.

Pole Dancing

It looks deceptively simple but one lady pole dancer says it isn’t. There is a lot of hard work and sweat and you need to put in lots of  time to practice the moves. You can also get bruises in the beginning.

 However, once you get the hang of it, it looks simple and sensual as your body glides up and down the pole and you strike different poses.

It was a marvelous sight to behold the young ladies doing their routines on the poles.

A Lift Up The Steep Steps

When you have reached seventy and above, you are entitled to spoil yourself.

Such an occasion arose while we were on a visit to the mountains in Zhangjiajie, China.
We had climbed hundreds of steps and there were more to come! So when there were people who offered a lift up those steep steps for a fee, we joyfully opted for the ride.

Little did we know what a ride it would turn out to be!  The two guys just rushed up the steps, hollering at the crowds to stay out of the way and of course I had to cling on for dear life, and many a time I just had to close my eyes in case the guy in front stumbled and I would careen over the mountain side into the bottomless depths.  There was no safety belt as it was just a simple rattan seat carried on the shoulders of two guys.

Boy, what an experience it was, but I’ll not go through it again!! Thoroughly shaken and bounced, I was happy to get off the seat and stand on flat ground again.

An Awakening That Is Still Not Too Late

It was most heartening to see these two notices during my trip to China. The first one is a timely reminder that trees are precious. Indeed they are, in more ways than one.

 The other was in a restaurant.  Many people still waste food. On the buffet line, they will pile their dishes high with food, heedless of whether they can consume it all.  In fact a lot is left behind on the plates to be discarded later. It’s such a shame that food is wasted unnecessarily while others are dying of starvation.

Let’s hope that more restaurants will put up such notices to remind people not to waste food. It helps to remember that while we enjoy the lavish spread laid out before us, there are others who are less fortunate and may not even have a square meal once a day.

A Lovely Wedding Dinner

Last weekend I attended my niece's wedding dinner hosted by her father. She married a Dutch national in early May this year and they could only get leave from their respective jobs at this time to hold their wedding dinner back here in Malaysia.

Here they are cutting their wedding cake.

Dinner started off with the usual cold dish or starters, called Triple Happiness Combinations served on a 3-tiered dish. The top tier contained cucumbers with mayonaise and a baby octopus sitting on top of each cucumber. The middle tier held fish balls nicely fried and the last tier had delicious soft shelled crab, very crispy.
Look at the menu.

You will understand then how much I enjoyed the dinner. The roasted suckling pig was very tender and the skin crispy, with hardly any fat beneath.

The cod fish and sea cucumber were also very tasty but I didn't quite enjoy the prawns as they were rather hard to peel.

However the nicest part of any such family dinner is the catching up and re-bonding with family members who had come from as far as the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Land below The Wind. The Aussie branch were not able to make it this time. We had three lovely Dragon babies to carry and cuddle during the course of the evening.

Here is a picture of some of us.

Writing, A Most Satisfying Pastime

Writing is such a satisfying pastime.  However there is a difference in writing under the weight of deadlines and writing for pleasure.

I remember when I wrote my first English grammar book.  I was under great compulsion to write it because of the need to fill a vacuum created by the switch in the medium of instruction in Malaysian schools.  Teachers were told that with the then new English communication syllabus, the teaching of English grammar was no longer necessary. So long as the message could be understood, that was it, such as “Me Tarzan, you Jane”.

Thus many students did not learn the fundamentals of English grammar and they could not structure a proper sentence in English. Their speaking and writing skills deteriorated to the extent that they were not employable in the private sector once they completed their secondary and tertiary education.

I wrote “English Grammar, A Malaysian Student Guide” but because it was not commissioned, it was very difficult to get a publisher to publish it.  The book was completed in 6 months but it took three years to come into print form. The Sabah State Director of Education then launched the book and it was most gratifying to know that this book would help those who had no idea of what English grammar is all about and why it is so important if one wants to be proficient in the English Language.

Then I was approached by another publisher to write a series of English grammar books, this time with exercises in them so that any learner, student or adult, can apply their understanding of the grammar rules by completing the exercises. These four books, “Casey and Penny’s Guide to English”, were written with a very tight deadline. Two months I believe and a short while later, they were out on the market.

The same publishing company also commissioned me to write a series of “I Can Read” stories retold, for young children. This series I had great pleasure in writing, despite the challenge of having to re-tell a story in a certain number of words as well as coming up with enrichment activities at the end of each book.  They are also available on the market. Nothing beats the feeling you get when you see your books on the shelves.

Now it is even easier for budding writers to publish their own books.  Kindle and its sister company Createspace have made it very simple for writers to self-publish online.  Unfortunately Kindle ebooks are not made available in the Pacific region. This is very sad.  However books in print form are available from amazon.com published by createspace.  I have uploaded a number of ebooks on Kindle. This one is for children and is meant for parents to read to them. "Let's Save The Tiger" will educate the young ones about why it is necessary to do something to save these beautiful animals.

It has been a most pleasurable pastime writing these books and I hope that you, my readers, will encourage me by giving me your support and visiting amazon.com to check out my books.

"The Encounter" is followed by its sequel "You Can't Have Her!"